How Chobani yogurt became the target of America's immigration ire
The debate over refugee and immigrant aid in the United States has been one of the most contentious issues of a tense election cycle. The US is bracing to up the number of refugees it will take in next year by 30 percent; at the same time, many Americans have been mobilized by the anti-immigration rhetoric that has pervaded the presidential campaign.
Now, the ire over the refugee question is trickling into yogurt.
Popular yogurt-maker Chobani lately has聽been the target of racist attacks and calls for a boycott on social media, and of criticism on right-wing websites such as Breitbart.聽Hamdi Ulukaya,聽Chobani's Turkish immigrant founder, advocates for millions of refugees around the world and hires those who are resettled in the communities where Chobani operates.
Boycott calls on social media have accused Ulukaya of importing Muslims 鈥渢o Idaho to work in his factory.鈥�
The mayor of Twin Falls, Idaho, where Chobani has a plant, has even partly because of his support of the company, according to The New York Times.
鈥淚t got woven into a narrative that it鈥檚 all a cover-up, that we鈥檙e all trying to keep the refugees safe so that Chobani has its work force, that I personally am getting money from the Obama administration to help Chobani hire whoever they want, that it鈥檚 part of this Islamification of the United States,鈥� 聽Twin Falls mayor Shawn Barigar told the Times. 鈥淚t鈥檚 crazy.鈥�
The attacks are growing along with Ulukaya's聽advocacy efforts. Besides hiring refugees, this year the Chobani head聽, an organization that aims to help the more than 65 million people who have fled armed conflict or persecution and now are displaced around the world. The United Nations calls this the largest refugee crisis since World War II, and companies such as a Airbnb, Cisco, have signed on to pitch in with education, employment, and other services.
Ulukaya came to the United States for school in the 1990s, founding Chobani in upstate New York in 2007 with the help of a loan from the US government. Today, Chobani boasts 2,000 employees and $1 billion in revenue. It is also considered one of the most socially responsible of US companies. Ulukaya pays employees above minimum wage, with generous benefits. In April, he gave workers聽ownership of 10 percent of the company, and more recently announced that all employees, hourly and salaried, would get six weeks of parental leave starting next year.
One-third of Chobani鈥檚 workers are refugees from Vietnam, Thailand, Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere.
The heated backlash against the company from anti-immigration and anti-refugee critics for its efforts is not unique. Impassioned calls for boycotts over corporate positions on controversial issues ranging from same-sex marriage, to gendered bathrooms, and even to presidential candidate choices, are becoming commonplace in today鈥檚 fraught political climate.
Silicon Valley billionaire investor Peter Thiel has been vilified for his support of presidential candidate Donald Trump, with calls for his resignation from Facebook's board and other projects. The founder of Yuengling Brewery, Dick Yuengling, has been threatened with boycotts for endorsing Donald Trump and giving his son Eric Trump a tour of the beer company's Pennsylvania facility.
Bars in Washington, D.C. have ceremoniously removed the Yuengling label from their bar taps, as . Calls for boycott have come even from elected officials like Pennsylvania state representative Brian Sims.
鈥淪upporting Yuengling Brewery, that uses my dollars to bolster a man, and an agenda, that wants to punish me for being a member of the LGBT community and punish the black and brown members of my community for not being white, is something ,鈥� wrote Rep. Sims on Facebook last week. 鈥淕oodbye Yuengling and shame on you.鈥�
